ZARA Phillips has already set her sights on winning gold at the 2016 Olympics, according to her husband, Mike Tindall.

Having just missed out for top spot at the equestrian eventing last Tuesday, the silver medallist is already looking ahead to the next Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Former England rugby captain Mike said: “Her horse, High Kingdom, has still got a good seven or eight years left in him so of course she wants to take him to Rio if she can.”

He confirmed that Zara was putting in new gallops at her stables on her mother Princess Anne’s Gatcombe estate and was “always on the lookout for new horses”.

He added: “There is still a lot she wants to achieve. It certainly doesn’t end here.”

At 31, the former European and world champion is still relatively young for her sport. Her teammate, Mary King, whom she affectionately refers to as “granny”, is 51.

Sources close to the couple, who celebrated their first wedding anniversary the day before Team GB scooped silver, have been talking about children and the four-year gap between now and the next Olympics would give them plenty of time to start a family.

Having just missed out for top spot at the equestrian eventing last Tuesday, the silver medallist is already looking ahead to the next Games in Rio de Janeiro

As one insider put it: “She could have a couple of kids and still be ready to compete in Rio in 2016. In many ways, it’s perfect timing.”

The newlyweds still haven’t found the time to go on honeymoon after marrying at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh on July 30 last year, however. Mike said they had yet to book a romantic getaway. “We cannot go on holiday now as she’s competing over the summer and I have just started training. Maybe some time next year!”

Tindall, 33, who was in the squad which won the 2003 Rugby World Cup, signed a one-year contract in June to become a player coach at Gloucester, where he has spent the past eight years. Because the rugby season starts in the autumn when the equestrian season wraps up, they rarely have any time off together.

The couple live in an £800,000 Georgian house in nearby Cheltenham, where Zara carried the Olympic torch last month. They have had the property extensively refurbished with a view to it being their family home for years to come.

It is conveniently located near Mike’s rugby club and Gatcombe, which is in the nearby village of Minchinhampton.

Zara’s brother Peter, 34, lives on the estate with his wife Autumn, also 34, and their two daughters, Savannah, 18 months, and Isla, born in March. Their father, Captain Mark Phillips, also lives on the estate and intends to stay on at Aston Farm. He is still sharing with second wife Sandy despite them announcing their divorce in May following his affair with Lauren Hough, an American event rider 30 years his junior.

An insider said: “The Mark and Sandy situation has been difficult for everyone at Gatcombe. It’s a very close-knit community and no one wants to take sides.

“When Anne and Mark divorced in 1992, it was agreed Aston Farm would be left in trust for Peter and Zara so it is effectively up to them who ends up living there.

“Obviously neither of them are going to turn their back on their father, which leaves Sandy in a precarious position.”

Perfectionist Zara was said to have been “beating herself up” after narrowly missing out on the gold medal placing to the Germans.